Choking: first aid

Do this now

1. 01If they can cough, speak or breathe, let them cough. Coughing shifts more than you can.
2. 02If they cannot make a sound, act now. Lean them well forward and give five sharp blows between the shoulder blades with the heel of your hand.
3. 03If that fails, stand behind them, make a fist just above the navel, grip it with your other hand and pull sharply inwards and upwards. Five times.
4. 04Alternate five back blows and five abdominal thrusts until it clears or they collapse.
5. 05If they collapse, lower them to the floor and start chest compressions.
6. 06For a baby under one: five back blows face-down along your forearm, then five chest thrusts with two fingers. Never abdominal thrusts.
7. 07Anyone who has had abdominal thrusts should be checked by a doctor afterwards.

Do not

• ×Do not slap the back of somebody who is coughing effectively — you can dislodge the object into a worse position.
• ×Do not put your fingers blindly into the throat to hook it out.
• ×Do not give water to "push it down".
• ×Do not use abdominal thrusts on a baby under one year old, or on a heavily pregnant person — use chest thrusts.

What to tell the operator

• That someone is choking and cannot breathe
• Their age — a baby, a child or an adult
• What they were eating or what went in
• Whether they are still conscious

What this page cannot tell you

• Whether the airway is partly or completely blocked
• Whether the object has been swallowed or moved into the lung